Andrew Gumbel reports on the traumatising effects of this bitter campaign and how, as the world's most powerful democracy talks of exporting freedom to Iraq, it is at risk of becoming an object of international ridicule...

http://207.44.245.159/article7127.htm

According to the New York Times, "Many of the injured [from the Iraq War] say they have grown embittered from being away from home so long. Some see the extended separations as one more indication that military leaders consider the needs of part-time soldiers - once taunted as weekend warriors - as less important than those of the full-time troops. They view themselves as casualties not just of bombs and heart attacks and ankle twists, but also of poor planning for a war that is increasingly being fought by the nation's part-time military."

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2285

The article below provides additional strong evidence of declining morale and an unwillingness to serve in the Iraq War: "More than 800 former soldiers have failed to comply with Army orders to get back in uniform and report for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Army said Friday. That is more than one-third of the total who were told to report to a mobilization station by Oct. 17."

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2284

Lorna Martin meets the families of the Black Watch soldiers incensed by 'betrayal' over Baghdad posting...

http://207.44.245.159/article7125.htm

by Media Lens

Media Indifferent as UNICEF Reports Worsening Catastrophe

UNICEF estimates that some indications showed improvement in Iraqi child mortality between 1999 and 2002 - the death rate dropped to 125 in 2002 (from 130 in 1999). However, this trend has reversed under the occupation and child mortality is actually worsening as compared to 2002 levels. UNICEF's Roger Wright added: “Since the war more children in Iraq are malnourished, fewer children are protected from immunizable diseases and there has been an increase in the incidence of diarrhoeal disease.”....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct04/MediaLens1022.htm

Veterans for Common Sense is adding a new feature this week: aggregating the weblogs of Iraq veterans, service-members in Iraq, Iraqi civilians and others who are on the spot in Iraq.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2259
http://cbftw.blogspot.com/2004/09/blogs-offer-view-of-soldiers-lives.html
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/mxna

This is an 81 page resource on the Legality of the Iraq War which is worth studying or browsing.

http://www.eurolegal.org/useur/bbiraqwar.htm#TOP

Its existence should be made known and its contents summarized, to the extent feasible, by the media, librarians and scholars to whom I am sending it.

Howard N Meyer